Singer cars were exported to most British colonies during their heyday and many were sent to Australia. Quite a few were sent as ‘CKD’ or ‘Chassis Knock Down’ to avoid the high tariffs levied on the importation of complete cars. The chassis’ were then bodied locally.

This beautiful photo from the Museum of New South Wales, shows a Singer Nine Sports in front of Keith W Hamilton’s, who operated as a used car dealer, trading from premises at 144 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, N.S.W, Australia. From time to time, they sold on the odd Singer Le Mans, Nine saloon and this distinctive locally-bodied Nine Sports. This photo, taken @1937, was probably used in the local ‘Telegraph’ classified ads where Hamilton often advertised and the car still looks in fine fettle. The photo was taken by Sam Hood, a career photographer whose collection now resides with the museum.

The interesting thing about the special bodied Nine Sports is the striking similarity to the one rescued in 2009 by Simon Agar of West Pimble, NSW. In fact, given its distinctive style and its geographical location, it might well be the same car.

Here’s a photo of the Singer as found. To get a better perspective, I’ve flipped the photo to give it approximately the same position as the Hamilton photo taken so long ago and it can be seen that the profiles of the scuttle, door cut-out and tail treatment are almost identical.

It would be interesting if any of our friends down under could shed any more light on Keith W. Hamilton, or this fascinating special bodied Singer Nine Sports.

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